A 29-year-old Albanian man attacked a German police station with a machete. Investigators are considering a possible “radical Islamist motive.”
The man entered a police station in the western city of Linz am Rhein shouting “Allahu Akbar” (“God is great”) and said he wanted to “kill the police”, the Koblenz prosecutor’s office said.
Officers arrived at the scene and locked the main door and the door leading to the police station courtyard, trapping the man.
“The defendant allegedly attempted to force them open… but was unsuccessful,” prosecutors added.
Special forces were alerted and neutralized the attacker with a stun gun.
During a search of his home, investigators found the emblem of the Islamic State group painted on the wall.
The Albanian suspect remains in custody and the investigation is continuing, prosecutors said.
tenth night #Mannheim nothing #Munchen nothing #Bonn and also not in #solingen Sondern in Linz am Rhein stürmt ein Macheten-Mann die Polizeiwache und wollte Polizisten ubringen… Durch einen Taser Einsatz des SEK konnte er festgenommen werden. pic.twitter.com/Khh2hEBAeA
—Bünyamin Yilmaz (@YlmzBnym) September 6, 2024
Germany has suffered several similar attacks in recent years, the deadliest of which was a truck attack at a Berlin Christmas market in 2016 that killed 12 people.
Last month, three people were also stabbed to death by a suspected Islamist at a festival.
Yesterday Cursor wrote that German police shot dead a gunman after a terrorist attack near the Israeli consulate in central Munich. This prompted an investigation by state prosecutors.
The suspect, an 18-year-old Austrian citizen, was armed with an antique rifle with a fixed bayonet when he was shot yesterday in Carolinenplatz, a square next to the Israeli consulate and Nazi documentation center, Munich police said.
The suspect was fatally wounded in a shootout, Munich police said on Monday. Five police officers were involved in the shooting, police spokesman Andreas Franken said.
